Hog plant research to reduce salmonella

Food Safety Consortium researchers at Iowa State
University are working on a project to determine whether lairage facilities at
hog slaughter plants have minimal effective doses of
salmonella.

Using a polymerase chain reaction, which is a technique for amplifying
fragments of DNA sequences for laboratory analysis, the researchers were able to
obtain salmonella test results on faecal samples within about six hours.

Once their results are published, lairage operators could implement
sanitation procedures to bring salmonella levels down if
necessary.

First resultsPreliminary samples of pens
in one slaughter plant indicated that the facility's procedures reduced
salmonella transmission among different groups of incoming animals. Further
research will investigate whether samples from another plant show similarly
effective results.